| Eric Mindich at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 29, 2010 (Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg). |
Another big-name hedge fund manager with a stellar pedigree has fallen from grace.
Eric Mindich has announced that he is shutting down Eton Park Capital Management, his New York multistrategy firm that has been struggling of late.
He told clients he is returning capital from his firm, which was managing about $7 billion at year-end, down from $9 billion a year earlier and about half of what it was managing in mid-2011, according to a client letter dated March 23 and obtained by Alpha. The firm declined to comment on the contents of the letter.
“Recently, a combination of industry headwinds, a difficult market environment and, importantly, our own disappointing 2016 results have challenged our ability to continue to maintain the scale and scope we believe necessary to pursue our investment program consistent with our founding principles,” Mindich told investors in the letter.
Mindich, 49, said he plans to return 40 percent of all investors’ main portfolio balance by the end of April. “We believe we will be able to make substantial progress on the rest of the portfolio in the coming months, although certain investments, particularly Special Investments, will take longer.”
Last year, Eton Park’s flagship fund fell 9.4 percent and was only up 0.50 percent for the first two months of this year.
Mindich, who at one time was the youngest-ever Goldman Sachs partner, was celebrated in 2004 when he launched with $3.5 billion, which even in those heady times for hedge funds was considered a major coup.
